Just bought GTX780m for GTX580m failure replacement. Any new info on m17x r3 install?

Hey fellow tinkerers, I've just pulled the trigger on a 780m card to replace the gtx580m card that failed due to visible SMD capacitor failure on the pcb. For info I bought from a UK based ebay seller (in Morden) for £480 who claim the card to be new, which seemed reasonable given the cost of them from upgrademonkey / eurocom etc. I have an m17x R3 without the 3d screen.

I've seen multiple threads here and elsewhere regarding installation and just wanted to check there was no new info or steps that I should perform prior to installing when I receive it. As I understand these are the required steps:

1) remove all gpu drivers from system (in my case I will have to do this using IGP as the GTX580 is screwed), remove IDT drivers from win 7.
2) turn off and remove GTX580
3) flash VBIOS with modified j95's A12 bios which will allow me to completely disable the integrated graphics
4) install new GTX780m
5) boot to BIOS, disable IGP, disable onboard sound(IDT?), enable PEG, save and exit, reboot
6) install latest j95's modified Nvidia drivers so GTX780m shows up correctly in windows
7) reinstall IDT in windows, then re-enable IDT in bios!

After that it should work as intended right (bar the switchable graphics option, which frankly i rarely used anyway!)?


If there's something I've missed or some steps i have in the wrong order could someone set me straight please? Naturally I'll post to let you all know how it goes!

 

that's about it, let us know how it goes.

 

Thank you. I have just thought of something that I need advice on. The card I've bought is a 4gb one and I believe Dell only had 2gb cards (perhaps I'm confusing this with the gtx580m)

In any case, will my gtx580m heat sink still fit the 4gb 780m card?

I'm hoping the 780 will come with the xplate and pads, though I've ordered some 1mm thermal pad material separately in case it doesn't for manual placement.

 

Yeah I did this exact upgrade and the old heatsink fit just fine. In my case I didn't get a new xplate, so I used the one from the 580m, which also fit. You should be good to go.

 

Excellent news, did you bother replacing the thermal material too? I've ordered some 1mm thick stuff, but think there were different thickness needed on different parts of the card. Which chips need what thicknesses?

 

Yeah I replaced the pads using 1mm thickiness. Any half decent pads will do. Deciding on which thickness goes where is probably the trickiest part, but if you get pads that are slightly squishy, then it's actually way easier to ensure contact across the board. Personally I just use my best judgement on that one. Also I used Arctic MX-4 thermal compound and that has been working great.

 

dell's 780Ms are 4gb cards.

 

Bugger, new card installed, 6 beeps... What's up?

Edit: Just removed and refitted the 780m and got to. BIOS ok, now in Windows though f£&@ng windows update has kicked in to do what it can to mess up proceedings!

Fingers crossed it doesn't affect the install. Lesson learned for next time! (That said I'm surprised it's set to auto update, it's not a setting I tend to use, I favour doing it on my terms not Microsoft's!)

 

So far so good, except temps. I'm only in Windows 7 desktop browsing and installing drivers but HWiNFO64 is reporting 64-72C. I've used some mx-4 paste (line method) on the die and removed the black tape from the heatsink. Does mx-4 have a burn in time, I remember artic silver took a while to bed itself in?

The only other thing that I've noticed is that the gpu fan hasn't (to my knowledge) kicked in yet. When does that normally wake up? Is it a BIOS setting for the GPU fan? I was hoping the nvidia drivers would have sorted it.

 

Had some issues with the IDT drivers and sound not working but finally have a fully operational (albeit a little too warm for my liking) GTX780m in my m17xR3. Even had a white screen with full audio (which proved to be me missing out a step in the nvidia driver installation)


I found I had to uninstall my old nvidia drivers in safe mode with the onboard HD audio DISABLED in BIOS settings. Reason being the nvidia uninstallation is done in steps (driver, geforce experience etc) each one requiring a restart. If Onboard Audio was enabled at this stage, windows 7 would install default drivers after each of the nvidia restarts.

Next was to re ENABLE the onboard HD sound in BIOS, boot to safe mode and install the IDT drivers (R303928.exe found from dell/alienware website) then restart to safe mode once again leaving onboard HD sound still enabled in BIOS.

Then install the Nvidia drivers. I forgot to do the modified *.inf file step which was to place the modified file (courtesy of j95, thank you) manually into the display.driver folder found in the "failed"


A final restart got everything working as it should. (except high temps, had to make do with some existing thermal pads, ordered some more to redo the heatsink)

Hope this helps anyone trying to do the same.

 

Thanks for letting us know, what are the temps at?

 

Not great if I'm honest. 64c idle, was up to 95c after only about 10 minutes of company of heroes steam version with everything on ultra. Definitely need to redo thermal pads and paste.

I didn't notice the gpu fan at work at all which is concerning, is there some setting in the a12 modified bios I should have set? I didn't see anything obviously connected to gpu cooling.

 

Check hwinfo to see the gpu fan speed. Maybe automatic fan control is not working for some reason.

 

just covering all bases.. did you make sure the gpu fan connector plug is securely attached when you reassembled?

 

@jaeyang9, yup was the first thing i thought of checking. i noticed the r4 has an upgraded fan which pushes out considerably more air. i may try to get one once i'm assured the card does send demand for the fan.

 

There's no such thing...:hi2: A12 unlocked BIOS and vBIOS all credit goes to svl7 & Johnksss [M17x R3] - BIOS A12 'unlocked' & 'SATA tweak'

HWiNFO fan control [AW 17xR3] After nvidia upgrade 765M and win7 reinstall, no video fan?

 

Apologies, easy mistake to make when you're so omnipresent with helpful links on this forum- for which I am most grateful. Credit redirected to svl7 and Johnksss then, and a big thank you too!

 

Use HWiNFO64 fan control if the fan is not triggering properly, 95C is unacceptable for AW, it used to be...